Michele Maccarone: Gloves Off

Michele Maccarone, Christoph Büchel's New York rep.,
has already promised to tell her artists and collector contacts not to
deal with Mass MoCA. Now, Maccarone has written a letter urging the
folks involved with LA25 to pull out of a program it is doing with
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. That's the law firm that
represented Mass MoCA.

To: John Baldessari, Kris Kuramitsu, Weston Naef, Cathy Opie, Ann Philbin, Paul Schimmel; and the Deans or Chairs of: Art
Center College of Design, California Institute of the Arts, Claremont
Graduate University, Otis College of Art and Design, University of
California in Irvine, University of California in Riverside, University
of California in Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California

In the summer of 2006, the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Skadden Arps) announced a three-year program, LA25,
intended to aid twenty-five artists from a select group of Southern
California art schools and university art departments. I write to you
in order to bring to your attention the fact that Skadden Arps is also
the law firm that counseled and represented the Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA), probono, in Mass MoCA's recent lawsuit
against artist Christoph Büchel. As you may know, Mass MoCA sued Mr.
Büchel in order to obtain a court ruling allowing them to distort and
exhibit Mr. Büchel's artwork without his consent.

I find it very ironic and deeply unsettling that Skadden Arps has
initiated this program and collection using the existing professional
and highly-respected institutions in the Los Angeles art community, all
the while counseling and representing an institution that not only
disseminated false and negative press about an artist, but also
strategically initiated a lawsuit which claimed that either Mr.
Büchel's project was not art, or alternatively that the Museum was the
co-author of Mr. Büchel's unfinished art work.

The
lawyers of Skadden Arps were so aggressive and manipulative in their
tactics against Mr. Büchel that they are now responsible, along with
MassMoCA, in establishing an unprecedented decision which made it legal
for a museum to exhibit an unfinished and unauthorized installation by
an artistagainst her or his consent. The negative historical
consequences of this matter remain to be seen, but ostensibly the
impact of this aggressive and manipulative maneuver by an art
institution and its representative is frightening.

I
write to urge you to not participate in putting together a collection
for a corporation who has challenged the authority and authenticity of
a fine contemporary artist, and simultaneously diminished legal
protections for the very same visual artists we all help produce,
educate, nourish and support.

Michele Maccarone, Christoph Büchel's New York rep.,
has already promised to tell her artists and collector contacts not to
deal with Mass MoCA. Now, Maccarone has written a letter urging the
folks involved with LA25 to pull out of a program it is doing with
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP. That's the law firm that
represented Mass MoCA.

To: John Baldessari, Kris Kuramitsu, Weston Naef, Cathy Opie, Ann Philbin, Paul Schimmel; and the Deans or Chairs of: Art
Center College of Design, California Institute of the Arts, Claremont
Graduate University, Otis College of Art and Design, University of
California in Irvine, University of California in Riverside, University
of California in Los Angeles, and the University of Southern California

In the summer of 2006, the law firm of Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP (Skadden Arps) announced a three-year program, LA25,
intended to aid twenty-five artists from a select group of Southern
California art schools and university art departments. I write to you
in order to bring to your attention the fact that Skadden Arps is also
the law firm that counseled and represented the Massachusetts Museum of
Contemporary Art (Mass MoCA), probono, in Mass MoCA's recent lawsuit
against artist Christoph Büchel. As you may know, Mass MoCA sued Mr.
Büchel in order to obtain a court ruling allowing them to distort and
exhibit Mr. Büchel's artwork without his consent.

I find it very ironic and deeply unsettling that Skadden Arps has
initiated this program and collection using the existing professional
and highly-respected institutions in the Los Angeles art community, all
the while counseling and representing an institution that not only
disseminated false and negative press about an artist, but also
strategically initiated a lawsuit which claimed that either Mr.
Büchel's project was not art, or alternatively that the Museum was the
co-author of Mr. Büchel's unfinished art work.

The
lawyers of Skadden Arps were so aggressive and manipulative in their
tactics against Mr. Büchel that they are now responsible, along with
MassMoCA, in establishing an unprecedented decision which made it legal
for a museum to exhibit an unfinished and unauthorized installation by
an artistagainst her or his consent. The negative historical
consequences of this matter remain to be seen, but ostensibly the
impact of this aggressive and manipulative maneuver by an art
institution and its representative is frightening.

I
write to urge you to not participate in putting together a collection
for a corporation who has challenged the authority and authenticity of
a fine contemporary artist, and simultaneously diminished legal
protections for the very same visual artists we all help produce,
educate, nourish and support.